Today I was wondering how it is that body parts and functions are given such bizarre names.
When I was a small child, I was taught that a bowel movement was "aah aah." Even at the age of two this seemed totally ridiculous to me. My mother told me this was the noise some people (could they have been relatives?!) made when they were defecating.
I never could warm up to the term and never used it with my own children. Somehow we called the infamous BM "cocky." I don't know where this term came from, but I think it was terminology my sister-in-law used.
A neighbor's child was taught to use the initials "BM" that he tongue twisted into "beem." I sometimes use that term myself mainly cause I thought it was funny and he was a cute little guy.
When I was a kid, urine was "tinkle," and one's butt was one's "punkin'" allegedly because it looked like a pumpkin. I started to think there were some very bizarre people in my family based solely upon their euphemisms for bodily functions and parts.
What words did you use for urinating? Wee wee? Pee pee? Ridiculous aren't they? And yet we persist in using them.
Do we use them because they make something natural, but possibly nauseating, more palatable? Maybe even cute?
Did you refer to breasts by their real name? Or did you call them "moomies," a word my friends used that seemed senseless?
Did your parents suggest you call the male organ by its real name or did they use a nonsense word like "wangdoodle?"
There are probably as many nonsense words in this category as there are families. And the nonsense words we used, I think, reflect our family's attitude towards the human body.
It may seem immature to use words like "poo poo" and "doo doo," but there's nothing cute or amusing about the word "shit." It's a little too "in your face," as it were.
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